News, Views Etc...PW Show - not Richmond!

Paul Morehead has been in touch with a bit of news, well; two bits actually, first this years PW show date, which is the normal bit of news...and the other news that there is a venue change!

The 28th Plastic Warrior Show will be on; 

Saturday 4^th May 2013

At; 

The Winning Post, Chertsey Road, Whitton, Twickenham, TW2 6LS

In;

The Harlequin Suite

This is just South of the previous venue on the same A316. For those who know the road, it's the big pub on the left where all the hoorays get tanked-up before the Matches at Twickenham, but it's off the dual-carriageway so I suspect for the car park you have to go left at the roundabout after the raised section (heading North from Sunbury), then turn right into Percy Road and right again for Pauline Crescent? I'll check that and get back to you!

[From the organiser - The main entrance to the Winning Post is straight off the A316 but there is also vehicle and pedestrian access from Percy Road. For people comming by public transport, Whitton Station is 3 minutes walk and gets 8 trains an hour from Waterloo. Detailed travel information will be released shortly.]

 

There is FREE parking, and a Premier Inn on the same site for anyone who wants to stay the night

Details of the venue can be found here;

Winning Post

Best show for rare plastics, hope to see you there.

Paul - Does this mean we can say horrid things about the management at the old venue and their parking-fascism now?

S is for Swansea

Still haven't worked out why that post migrated the other day, which is a worry as I want to add some more content to the Airfix blog, and if it's unpublished preloaded pages are going to migrate when I set them live I'm going to lose the chronological order I set when I created the thing...doh! At which point I may just bring it all over here to join everything else?

In the meantime, here's a great favourite of mine, the Marx Noah's Ark from Swansea...

The granddaddy of all those Blue Box and other Hong Kong Arks - some of which (post Blue Box versions) were still available from Bible shops a few years ago? No, not really, the HK ones are mostly based on the Miniature Masterpiece version.

This differs from the small scale one and the wannabes by having a set of wheels hidden in recesses which become 'Feed' and 'Water' stores from the inside, a more ornate ramp (some of the HK ones don't even have a ramp!), sloping gable-ends to the roof and it lacks the sliding door of its diminutive brethren.

The animals are similar the the US 54mm set, but are not quite the same, having the same poses but a smoother finish. I really like these, they have a lot in common with the Kellogg's ones we looked at HERE, and when I first encountered these I though they were the unknown big-cats in that post, but again these are too smooth!

It's worth looking at THIS Merit post as well and comparing, as both are clearly the same beast; aimed at infants, lots of large colourful pieces, educational, biblical (still 'good' in the 1960/70's!) and tons of non-warlike play-value.

L is for Late, Thanks to Blogger!

Well - you nearly didn't get this post at all, for some reason the 'New Interface' has made it almost impossible to place text above the first image, and in trying to make it I managed to lose the image, and thought that the copies were elsewhere, luckily they were here and I've not only managed to find them but also find a way back to the old Interface, not for long, but hopefully by the time they force it on me again they might have ironed out the couple of dozen problems I've already encountered...some hope huh?!

Simple instructions for how to find the old template/interface if you wish to go back to it for a while...

Old Blogger Tip

I have a bit of a soft spot for tonight's subject. Long before Paul Morhead over at Plastic Warrior talked me into collecting up to 45/50mm "Because no one else will...", I had already started collecting up to 40/45mm in part for the same reason, in part because the lack of formal/industry standard 'size' between scales leads to a natural scale-creep in the collection! These guys would always come in in mixed lots as the unloved dwarves of 54/60mm collectors!

So, to look at one of the earliest sets of toy soldiers, and - like most early stuff - quite well pirated, copied and changed over the years.

The above image shows the Marx 40/45mm PVC vinyl G.I.'s from the early 1950's with the first version (small/no based) sets at the top, the larger-based re-issue below them with two painted variants; one PVC and the other a hard polystyrene on the second row. The third row shows the later Hong Kong production also in a styrene with the MG.

The problem with moving production to HK is that while it was done under 'if you can't beat them join them' conditions, due to the piracy that was already going on, as Britains found; it just makes it easier for the pirates to obtain product to copy. As a result Payton in the 1970's issued the figures in the forth row, not marked HK but almost certainly made there, the quality and plastic type matching a lot of similar production from the then British colony. The forth row are 'all' HK.

The Marx originals, on the left the earlier set with the smaller or non-existent bases, where there are bases; they are smooth and unmarked. To the right are the larger-based replacements with the characteristic dimples or hollows of so much Marx production

The hard-plastic versions from Hong Kong (top right, middle and bottom right) with the painted vinyl bazooka-man and the white plastic marching soldier on a less common oval base.

The bazooka-man has the same mould-line as the HK production, and as the HK one has no mark, I'm assuming they are from the same mould. The white plastic guy must be a 'special', perhaps to go with a stand-alone vehicle or something? he might just be a Marine - I don't have one to compare, but is still in an unusual colour, and seems to have been factory-painted? (see comments now - thank you to Mike Niederman)

I have somewhere a perfect copy of the guy with an empty shell case from the Airfix kits of the 6lbr and 25lbr, but in 40mm and with a very similar paint-job to these dudes, but he has a silver helmet (and I have several now), so I'm suspecting he actually went with an HK military vehicle or something, anyway I would have shown him but I don't know where his bag is at the moment!

The Payton pirates - lower shots. These are in a polyethylene or polypropylene type plastic and come in various colours and had some real HK shite by way of accompanying AFV's. The two above with the plug-feet are more likely full-HK copies, issued with some form of military vehicle or vessel like a PT Boat, Landing Craft or AA Gun? The guy missing his feet has the same poor quality as the other two, so probably shares the same source.

Some comparison shots showing the evolution (degradation?) of the figures over time, and the support weapons issued with these guys in the Marx play-sets. The MG in the middle was the sort of 'standard' piece of kit, but they also made a recoilless rifle to fit the same tripod and there was also an earlier water-cooled Browning MG for the same mount. The Japanese version to the right seems to be a copy, in a more tinny polypropylene with added 'rivet' detailing to the legs...do any of the larger-scale experts know the origin?

Marx favoured this scale in their early days and we can see a few more here.

Top left; the PVC circus and Tom whatsit/Space Patrol/Rex Mars etc... 'Space Academy' figures.

Top right; Wild West in a Cowboy and Indian and a Hawaiian dancer I should have added to This Post.

Bottom left; Some navy figures, again - like the marching figure above - the yellow guy is a non-standard figure, in an odd colour and missing the kit-bag he is more commonly seen dragging behind him.

Bottom right; Navy bases and a mechanic in an ethylene polymer.

Tom Corbbet!

Added 17th July 2012;

This is the Airfix piracy I mentioned above, he has a green helmet not a silver one and is in a very dense polyethylene or polypropylene, so not actually connected to the above HK Marx, except in size and vauge paint-style, so probably a HK AFV accessory, but I mentioned him so he can stay here!

These have also turned-up, they are definitely a polypropylene or even nylon type polymer, the stretcher is almost impossible to keep together due to poor tolerance/QA and a they have to face each other as there is just the one moulding! However several of the poses are from the Marx 40mm and the rest are other Marx poses scaled down. Again I would imagine HK (or 'China'), and quite recent rack-toys - within the last 15/20 years?

[Added 14/01/2013 - I haven't the faintest idea why this post has moved here this afternoon? But as I can't find it wherever it was (June/July last year?) it will have to stay here! I guess it is a stupid new-version Blogger thing? reading the post it seems it was the first post I did after the first forced-change which might have something to do with its sudden migration. The link to old version no longer works. Weird...]

[Added 26/11/2013 - Another one, no base, no paint but same plastic, there doesn't seem to be signs of the base being removed but neither is there a locating stud to mount him in an AFV? Both will go on to the Airfix Blog eventually]

Mid-2021 - Three more have turned up (in the collection) with a new pose, and they (the same three) were also in Plastic Warrior magazine about a year ago, I'm pretty sure now they will turn-out to have been the crew in a probably Hong Kong boxed or carded gun.

T is for Tatra, not the trucks from Czechoslovakia and not Rubinstein!

So a mystery solved, not by diligent research in the British Library, or months poring over old toy trade magazines, nor buy the serendipitous matching of a Littlewood's catalogue image with an old order form from Woolworth's or something like that, but by a simple comment I almost missed, written months after the original post had been published, and received with thanks from Gareth Callan;

Original Soldiers of the World Post

As soon as I had read Gareth's comment I Googled the firm - just to see if there was anything - and found that they are not only still going but have a website, a blog (with images of the original mouldings) and a fascinating history page which seems to involve them taking over most of the firms within a hundred miles of them in every direction over a number of years (decades!) and then moving the whole thing North!

Upper shot shows the footballers, these have bases like the Timpo ones but are a little smaller, they also seem to be the hardest to find of the main football types (Airfix, gold named-base, Timpo and pop-on based cake decorations) and when found are usually in the same cream as Airfix or the pinky-cream colour above.

Below are the Soldiers of the World in blue with two poses missing.

I contacted the company and received a kind reply from one of the staff, he has declined to enter detailed correspondence on the subject, a position I can understand as the company now is an extrusions company, very different from the injection moulding they were engaged in when they made these and so have little interest in what was probably a 'pin-money' earner for them more then 40 years ago. Consequently I won't name the individual but thank him for the images.

Also there may be very few people left in the factory who remember the fine details of what was happening "down south" all those years ago, but if Gareth could remember and comment, maybe someone else will...do you know anyone who worked at Tatra in the 1970's?, get them to drop a comment here and share their memories with the rest of us!

Some old shots left over from the previous post, showing the marking that clinches the British angle to these figures, they weren't supplied by Rubinstein, but to them!

The most interesting thing I learnt from the company spokesperson was that the moulds were finally sold only a few years ago (when the original owners retired?) to a plastics firm in South Africa, they couldn't remember the name of the firm, but anyone in SA, or with friends or family there might try to look out for them in the smaller shops or kiosks?

Tatra PR shot above and a few of mine - below - for the Magic Roundabout set, this was one of three sets of premiums issued for the iconic children's TV series of drug-infused madness; "Hey...anybody got a carrot maaaaannn..."

The other two were the bigger set (16 poses?) of very small ones issued all over Europe with gum, ice-cream or soap-powder and the larger based set probably made by Crescent - and like these; destined for Kellogg's Ricicles.

Finally the Robin Hood set complete, these appeared in large numbers a few years ago all in the same clean pale blue polyethylene, whether they were old stock or a quick run before the moulds were sold is not clear.

Obviously the original post has a few red-herrings now, as they weren't made in, for or by a pulping-mill on the North or South banks of the Thames or the Medway for starters!! But I'll leave it as it is with a link forward to this one - it is still one of the most popular posts with 40-odd visits today alone. And they may have been for a pulping-mill as the other connections hold vis-a-vis box supply, games etc...?

A couple of links;

Company History
Tatra Blog
More Tatra on this Blog

Known Listing;
 
Magic Roundabout Characters (c.1968) - Kellogg's Ricicles
- Brian the Neurotic Snail 
- Dougal Dog - The Sugar-rushed Worrier
- Dylan the Rabbit...the very, very spaced-out rabbit, man!
- Ermentrude the Cow, nice but dim.
- Florence
- Mr Rusty
- Old Mr McHenry
- Zebedee...that was all wrong...a talking bed-spring with a Mexican-mustachioed tumour for a head?

The Aristocats (c.1970) - Nabisco - Different set to the European gum-premiums, being larger, less poses and similar in execution to the Robin Hood figures.
 
Robin Hood (c.1970) - Nabisco
 
The Flintstones (c.1970) - Nabisco - See above link, were reissued in a soft vinyl.

Football Players (World Cup 1974) - ?

Warriors Through the Ages (c. 1975) - Various - See the original post for a fuller (but probably still not complete!) listing of the various 'to market' titles and dates for these.

P is for Plong...of course!

These chaps are by Jean/Big and would have been supplied to Cand-Import for their 'Plong' gum cards in the same way Kellogg's were supplied with figures by Crescent.

The eight cards make-up into a continuous background scene, although you'd be hard pressed to get the blister off without damaging the backing card. Gum is missing on these examples which may still be available from Adrian at Mercator Trading, see links to right of blog-page.

They have a simpler paint scheme than the originals as issued by Jean, which can be seen Here, a link which is well overdue as I said I'd add it back in March 2010 and then never got round to it (in my defence I was being dragged through the mill by a crooked Knight at the time!), thanks are due to Klaus Lemper for the heads-up on that one.

T is for Thales

That's 'Tar-les' not 'Thailes'

About a year ago I was hanging around Newbury, with an hour or so to kill, and having outstayed my welcome in the local coffee house thought I'd do a quick overpass of the charity shops in the main square, of which there are about 5, as, despite there rarely being any major pickings in charity shops these days (not because there's nothing there, but because they mostly save stuff 'out back' for their local tame collector!) you can sometimes find the odd useful piece.

And in one I did indeed find something, in the little restaurant-style bread-roll basket of infants toys and squeaky things, there was this soft expanded-foam moulding of what was obviously a pretty modern item of military kit. Well, it was what it was (20p?) so I bought it and when I got home Googled the thing, found it was one of a family of similar vehicles and thought "Ah! Different versions of prototype must equal different versions of toy, surly?", and I was right, but must stop calling myself Shirley (if you got that - you're showing you age!).

So this is the beast I found, it's a very accurate model - given the material - and seems to be around the 1:50 mark, scale wise. Clearly an advertising premium, the underside has more basic sculpting than the upper surfaces but gets across one of the main selling points of all vehicles of its type these days - mine resistance, with a clearly emphasised blast-protecting/directing ridge running the full length of the crew cab and passenger sections.

Anyway - I then eMailed a couple of the people I found on the websites and sat back to see what would happen...not a lot...and for a year this collage sat in Picasa with me wondering weather or not to blog it as a stand-alone. So a couple of months ago I tried again, obviously got a different eMail, and the result was a small parcel all the way from Australia with the rest of the crew on-board.

At this point I must thank Julian Elliott of Thales PR/Communications down under for going the extra mile.

Not only did Julian help with the rest of the Bushmaster family, but also sent me two versions of the smaller Hawkie ('hawk-eye'), a small air-portable AFV and the I-Mast, an integrated naval radar system (with all the various electronic units in one structure), which is manufactured by the Thales subsidiary in Hengelo, Netherlands, although the foam model is made in the same place as the Aussie AFV models.

The other members of the Bushmaster family are an APC version of the armoured ambulance I'd found and soft-skin versions of a pick-up truck with short and crew-cab layouts (the ACSV?). The I-Mast just screams 'Dalek HQ' to me and with Doctor Who Adventures magazine giving us no less than 6 old-type Daleks last week in five colours there's potential there somewhere for a good scrap (HOTT rules?).

Indeed all these lend themselves as very hard-wearing pieces for a gaming table, and would go very well with the modern standard 28mm Sci-fi or fantasy figures, or - of course - any similar sized 'modern' troops, the Bushmaster being in service with several armies now.

I was also given a small koala bear! he's now on the Christmas Tree!!! For those who have more than a passing interest in AFV's, these are interesting vehicles, not least that the original Bushmaster design comes from an Irish company called Timoney who - I'm pretty sure - made an interesting AFV/APC for the Irish army in the 1970's that looked like a Big-wheeled Ferret on steroids! Also the camouflage on the Hawkie, is quite similar to the camouflage on a 6x6 heavy-weapons conversion of the Land-Rover Defender I saw at Farnborough airshow about ten years ago, which also came from Australia.

Detailed links for those interested;
I-Mast
Hawkie Air-portable Light Wheeled AFV
Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle - Wikipedia

H is for Happy Birthday

Might I - in my well-stuffed, slightly alcohol-steeped state, and before midnight turns over to the 26th - take this opportunity to wish the Little Baby Jesus a Happy Birthday.

It happens than I am not a follower of Christ, nor do I believe in his father, nor their (shared?) holy ghost! which - as someone like Bernard Shaw (?) pointed out; suggests a sure-fire place for me in this mythical Heaven as I have given all three of them a great deal more thought than most of the people who will have been popping down to their local church in the last few days, or who will be doing so in the next few days, for the first time in twelve-months!

However I do believe in him as having been a historical person of some substance and I also believe he was a man who meant well, and had the knack of taking a crowd with him using only oratory, even when the message was one they wouldn't have liked...

* Be nice to people who are not the same as you, whether or not that difference is one of income, skin colour, religious belief or mental or physical state.
* Be generous with what you've got, whether that is in talents of money or talents of the mind, and expect nothing in return, but show gratitude for the generosity of others.

I'm sure that were he alive today he would have something to say about keeping guns in the closet too, but that's for another post, although the 'Give unto Caesar' rule would let the Swiss off the hook; they do have a mature attitude to them after all!

Indeed, all in all - for a non-believer I seem to believe quite a bit! The thing is though, this birthday thing we celebrate today and which has been so usurped by 'Big-Business' and the media, by politicians and the movie industry, was only ever the party we all need in the depths of winter, being earlier usurped by the Judeao-Christian lot from the Romans, who had usurped various aspects of it from the 'barbarians'.

We have bits of the Roman Winter Solstice, Scandinavian Sol (or Yule), Saturnalia, and others included in some of the traditions we think of as 'Christmassy' and hundreds of festivals ancient and modern from Halloween in the Autumn through Valentines to Walpurgisnacht in the Spring have risen and fallen in popularity, morphed, evolved and been subsumed over the years to the point where the truth of any of them has been lost in the need to eat mountains of food, buy truck-loads of manufactured 'stuff', drink a small brewery and light fireworks!

But there is one truth: that we need to stop, in the middle of winter, let of a bit of steam, fatten the bones and contemplate where we've been and where we're going, who we love and why.

And if they want to do that in the name of the Little Baby Jesus, sobeit, maybe calling it Winterval (C)/(R) Sponsored by Pepsi-corp/Lego TM would be more honest, but...hey? When did those at the top ever do anything honest to us or for us, be they priests, phat-cats or politicians?

Look to those around you, and be nice to them, it's all that matters in the end.



Thanks go to Dario (from Venice, not Italy! - see; keep it small and local) for the figure - maker unknown.

C is for Cristmas, Crimbo and CAKE!

A bit of a thematic - indeed - 'Seasonal' post tonight. We have looked at this sort of stuff before and will again, tonight's have all come into the collection in the last 15 or so months.

This is a surprisingly sophisticated design from Festival, a UK company, and I suspect a late production attempt to fight back against the onslaught of cheap imports from Hong Kong, who were simply copying their older polyethylene cake decorations in polystyrene.

Made from a polypropylene type material, it's in two parts which slot together, the white trim and red cloak reducing the need for the quantities of paint they had used in the 1950's and '60's. Supplied to Culpitts in the UK (as most of their output seems to have been), we see also a late Culpitts packaging.

Another carded set; this company (Anniversary House) are still extant and based in Bournemouth, although this item seems to be a discontinued - probably 1980's - piece, it has a spike or spigot to punch through the icing on a Christmas cake.

Nothing to do with cake this one, except that I have a whole set of cake decorations somewhere with this trombonist, so he's a case of cross-marketing, being supplied to cake decoration wholesalers and glued into snow-domes/snow-shakers.

Some older or more traditional ones - to me that is...or people of a certain age! Tradition with regard to Christmas is a very movable feast! But these are the sort of thing I remember from my childhood. The top picture's items are all by Festival, with the deer, the motto and the cupid all being copied in Hong Kong in polystyrene at one time or another, these are all originals with the registered trade numbers and/or Festival logo showing. The clown is only in the picture because they were all in the same bag, he's more of a Birthday cake decoration!

Bottom left are my favourite type of Christmas cake decorations; the plaster-of-Paris ones, going back to the turn of the century they ran alongside the bisque ones for years as the poorer brother, but have slowly lost out to plastics in the last 40 years, although they are still around and two of the above were bought new from a bakery in Newbury a year ago.

The final shot are 1970's style Hong Kong imports of a tree with and without a metallic finish and a little church, with another Festival item - the other tree - to the right.

Mostly more modern types although the large picture of the Santa' with a spigot looks to be early British (1950's) and could be Festival or Gem (who I think are connected anyway). Top left are poured resin (or 'Poly-stone'!!), the chap next to them seems to be made out of that oven-cure modelling compound, used by kids for craft stuff, but here used commercially.

A mixed bag which starts with a pair of earrings, these were imported by several companies a few years ago. and somewhere I have a bunch of them with the hangers removed and various treatments, both hand-painted and sprayed, in various schemes.

Next is a 'Mr. Man' pencil top who looks like a snowman and - you'll be unsurprised to hear - is called Mr. Snow! The very small one skating is interesting as he appears to be a polystyrene HK effort, but is quite finely designed and may be a copy of an earlier European moulding, but I've never found a soft plastic or marked version?

The chap on a card-plinth is the only Christmas themed cake decoration I could find in Britain's main supermarkets in the last month, and I tried Tesco (Andover and Aldershot), Walmart-call-me-Asda (Farnborough), Waitrose (Fleet) and Sainsbury's (Fleet and Farnborough). Not one of them thought to stock Christmas dec's, despite all having large displays of 'year-round' and birthday decorations? Oh...and he's made out of Royal Icing and is good for eating or removing teeth!

The lower image shows a china/ceramic 'fairing' type candle-holder of indeterminate years and origin...possibly made in Japan post war for the German market? And a hideous glitter covered, pipe-cleaner 'enhanced' Santa' who came with a commercial cake years ago, but was being sold with 5 other coloured fellows as tree decorations in Tesco this December, so the mould - unfortunately - survives somewhere in Hong Kong/China...

Going back to earrings for a moment; the main shot here shows three ex-earrings, which are just the right size for filling in at the top of the tree where you want little baubles and other hangings, and both the stripped bauble and the Christmas pudding were so converted a few years ago, while the little bell was courtesy of Tesco's about a week ago!

Below them is last years Christmas cake, with a poured resin and Santa Claus and his tree, which lost out at audition to a more traditional brush-type with plaster snow...and this years Yule Log with a squirrel bought from the local toy shop.

At the risk of repeating myself - wherever you are and whoever you're with; have a lovely Christmas, and get cake, eat cake, only...save the decorations!

M is for Merry Christmas

IT'S CHRISTMAS ! says Noddy five times a day on every radio station!

12 Days to Christmas, better get the tree up and start stuffing myself with stollen, tangerines, mince-pies, family packs of  'bisquits', Quality Street and  anything else I can lay my hands on that might get me in training for the big day!!!

So - I'm finally getting to grips with 3D and after a frustrating week on 'mesh' or basket-weaving as I call it, I had a bit of a play with 'solids' yesterday and lighting for shadows, so this is the first self-designed Christmas card wot I done did since primary skool init! More festive and less technical-exercise one next year I promise....

I still have all the Corgi/Matchbox articles to post and the French stuff, but time has waited for no man in what has been a very interesting year, however, I will try to get some catch-up done in the next four weeks.

Have a good one wherever you are and whoever you're with.

M is for Morris Museum Morristown

Sadly. I can't go, but for anyone over the pond who's liked the art-links I've been posting; this looks like a lot of fun if you're looking for something to do over the holidays...

Morris Museum - Morristown

R is for Run Raumfahrer, Run!

Apparently there were only ever these four figures in this Hausser/Elastolin set/range, and while they used to be considered very rare, the closing of the factory a few years ago apparently turned-up loads of them, as they had been poor sellers upon release and the bulk of the stock was returned to the factory - if indeed; it ever left the factory.

They are pretty quirky, and they are - with the exception of a pretty straitfoward 'astronaught' who is quite far along the evolutionary scale from Perry Rodan (very popular in Germany) to NASA - not your usual 'alien' types, being a very hysterical 'rubber-girl', a rather soft-looking dino-grinch and a slightly more atypical '60's pulp 'lobster-man'.

T is for Toothbrush!

A bit unusual - tonight's offering! Both my Brother and I had these when we were kids, it would have been about 1968/'70 and I can't remember who had the pink or who had the blue! What I do remember is that they came with a yellowish-pink toothpaste that was supposed to be strawberry flavour and in fact tasted of a mixture between banana baby-food and colonic worm-powder!...hey, we ate a lot of raw veg in the '60's!!

Manufactured by Halex, who still seem to be manufacturing a wide range of sports and domestic/household products, there's little else to add, they are about 40mm, figural flats if you remove them from the rest of the handle and a little nostalgia hit for people of a certain age!

L is for Listing

This listing is not complete, certainly isn't definitive and - frankly - never quite will be! However, any help correcting or adding to it will be gratefully received, and the list will remain here forever (hopefully) for all to see. [Or in the depths of some on-line archive beamed direct to Mars Colony by Microgooglefonapedia Inc., Corp.!]

It is designed to be read in conjunction with the four posts immediately below it and the two Tri-ang/Husky [Mettoy] articles posted in the last few months and many thanks are given to Bernard Taylor for all the help he gave me back in the summer sorting out some of my queries and tracking down esoteric bits of info.

Roughly divided into four generations, the overlaps are as numerous as the omissions! Basically we start with the metal figures of Hornby from before the war and run into their plastic sets, we then look at Tri-ang as it runs into Hornby! Then the separate Model-Land and Motorway sets (which ran concurrent to some of the previous list) and finally from the management buy-out to the present which includes some duplicate listing.

Hornby Trains, Frank Hornby, Dublo Dinky, Hornby Dublo (Meccano Ltd. Binns Road, Liverpool, 1938-1964) UK and France, see also; Dinky and AchO 
A small range of painted metal figures to accompany their OO gauge model railway system. Called Dublo, the range was later complimented by the Dublo-Dinky vehicles for Dinky Toys.
Metal Figure Production - Individual Figures Station Staff - green box 7 different male figures, with one issued as replacement after the war.
- Station master, (job number; 11740)
- Guard, (job number; 11741)
- Ticket Collector, (job number; 11742)
- Engine driver, (job number; 11743, figure replaced with driver in loose jacket, post war, not known if the figure got a new job-number)
- Porter with bags, (job number; 11744)
- Shunter with pole, (job number; 11745, pre-war figure has inserted wire pole, post-war version has integrated cast pole, not known if the figure got a new job-number)
Passengers - red box 6 figures, 3 male and 3 female.
- Man carrying a raincoat, (job number; 11752)
- Man reading a newspaper, (job number; 11753)
- Golfer, (job number; 11754)
- Woman with rug, (job number; 11755)
- Woman walking, (job number; 11756)
- Woman in fur coat, (job number; 11757)
Metal Figure Production - OO Gauge - Boxed Sets
D1 [Hornby Dublo] - Station Staff (1938/9-41, 6 figures - became; 1001, suitcases different colours, yellow label on box)
D1 [Hornby Dublo] - Passengers (1938/9-41, 6 figures - became; 1003, different paint styles, yellow label on box, early sets had the same box code as the Station Staff)
D2 [Hornby Dublo] - Passengers (1938/9-41, 6 figures - became; 1003, different paint styles, yellow label on box)
50, 250 [Hornby?] - Station Staff (1945/6-1950 (approximately), 6 figures, rare numbering or catalogued only, never issued?)
50, 251 [Hornby?] - Passengers (1945/6-1950 (approximately), 6 figures, rare numbering or catalogued only, never issued?)
1001 [Dinky Toys] - Station Staff (1952-54 or '59?, 6 figures, post-war colour changes, replacement figures, suitcases same colour, driver pale blue, green label on box)
1003 [Dinky Toys] - Passengers (1952-54 or '59?, 6 figures, post-war colour changes, simplified schemes, pink label on box)
051 [Dinky Toys] - Station Staff (approximately 1953/4-1959 [1953 catalogue for 1954 season?], 6 figures, as 1001, green label on box)
053 [Dinky Toys] - Passengers (approximately 1953/4-1959 [1953 catalogue for 1954 season?], 6 figures, as 1003, pink label on box)
Plastic Figure Range - 'Crystal Boxes' (1959-1964)
050 [Dinky] - Railway Staff (12 figures, pose change in late sets)
050 [Dinky] - Railway Staff (policeman with hands behind his back has been replaced with shunter)
051 - [Number used by metal set]
052 [Dinky] - Railway Passengers (11 items)
053 - [Number used by metal set]
054 [Dinky] - Railway Station Personnel [4 figures, 8 other pieces)
4315 - Horsebox, British Rail (polystyrene horse, red oxide)
4315 - Horsebox, British Rail (polyethylene, red oxide)
4316 - Horsebox, Southern Region (polystyrene, sand yellow)
4316 - Horsebox, Southern Region (polyethylene, sand yellow)
Unknown - might be late Hornby
? - Blue polyethylene railway staff or train crew (hollow base with 00X number and 'ENGLAND' marks) 2023 - These are now known to be Crescent Toys, issued with a set of Mazac/Zamak die-cast scenic accessories in HO-OO gauge-compatible size, probably as a seasonal ('for Christmas') gift-box, with thanks to Jon Attwood for the missing poses, see Crescent Tag.

Dinky Toys/Hornby Trains - Plastic production; O gauge
Listed due to similarity with HO version, O gauge will be covered in full another day under Meccano/Dinky.
? - Horsebox (polyethylene horse, grey)

Notes -

Piracies/home-casts exist of both metal sets without the 'HD' for Hornby Dublo under the base.

Help is needed to sort out the horsebox horse, was there ever a polystyrene version? It is referenced in various sources but I've never seen one. Were they colour-specific to each railway companies horsebox? or could you get either colour in either box...in either plastic?

Tri-ang Hornby - (Vague time-line)
Up to the 1967 edition catalogue; 'Rovex Scale Models Limited'
968 / 1969; 'Rovex Industries Limited'
1970 - 1972; 'Rovex Tri-ang Limited' (1972 catalogue omitted 'Limited')
1973 - 1975; 'Rovex Limited' (though both 1974 & 1975 catalogues also show 'Rovex Models and Hobbies')
1976 - 1981 'Hornby Hobbies, Rovex Limited'
1981 - 1999 (approximately) 'Hornby Hobbies Limited'
Approximately 2000 - present 'Hornby plc'

Tri-ang Railways and Tri-ang Railways Model-land/Minic Motorways, (Rovex/Lines, 1955-1964)
Tri-ang Hornby (Rovex/Lines, 1964-1972)
R.148 - [Trolleys and platform fittings set] (1st type, marked 'Tri-ang')
R.148 - [Trolleys and platform fittings set] (2nd type, unmarked
R.164 - Battle Space Commandos (1st type)
R.164 - Battle Space Commandos (2nd type)
R.164 - Battle Space Commandos (3rd type)
R.234c - Stephenson's Rocket (2 period figures, 3 wagons)
R.281 - 5 Train Figures (2 seated similar to figure in 413, 2 guards - short legs)
R.282 - [Number used for 1st Edition Triang-Hornby instruction manual and later both an 125 HST engine shed model and the Hornby 25th catalogue - 1979]
R.283 - Set of Platform Figures (3 passengers, 2 staff)
R.284 - Set of Coach Figures (4 or 5 figures; 1 waiter and 3 or 4 passenger busts)
R.348 - Giraffe Car (with ducking giraffe)
R.360 - Railway Figures Set (See notes)
R.413 - Locomotive Crew (2 figures, painted)
6 R.413 - Locomotive Crew (shop display card - 6x2 figures)
R.639 - Battle Space Sniper Car (with ducking soldier, variant of R.348)

Notes -

The contents of set R.413 were often included in the larger sets and with individual steam locomotive models, particularly when the locomotive had an open cab, with enough room for both figures, some of the smaller models having not enough room due to the practicalities of scale and/or the way the motor was contained within the body of the model.

The 'Battle Space' commandos were often included with other items in the range, sometimes officially (listed in the catalogue as being included), sometimes as an afterthought. Toward the end of the range's life the 3rd type seem to have been stuffed into all individual items remaining in the range. The three types are as follows; 1st Type - Brown copies of the Britains 54mm Khaki Infantry on round 'penny' bases, marked 'Hong Kong'. 2nd Type - Brown copies of the Britains 54mm Khaki Infantry on round 'penny' bases, unmarked. 3rd Type - Grey figures with unmarked bases, based on but not identical to the Britains 54mm figures. The 3rd type were the last version, as to which of the previous two were the first or second to be issued, I don't know. When included in the other individual models, they were bagged in sixes, the stand-alone sets received 12 figures, except...they didn't always even when they were supposed to, often the little bag contained 7 figures, meaning some big sets may have received as many as 14 figures!

As far as I know there were no figures issued for the TT range.

R360 contained 30 unpainted figures moulded in pink plastic in 1972-4. There were two runs of these in two shades of pink, and consisted of two sprues of the former R281, R283 & R284 sets all sold together in a large plastic bag

Tri-ang Railway Model-land/Mettoy
Model-Land RML.8 - Accessories (mould ended-up with Dapol - via Airfix?)
RML.70 - Pedestrian Figures Set No. 1. (7 figures on 6 bases - mother & child together)
RML.71 - Workmen's Figures Set No. 2. ('RML.74' in incorrect catalogues, 6 figures))
RML.72 - Children's Figures Set No. 3. (6 children)
RML.73 - Urban Figures Set No. 4. (6 figures; 3 cops, 1 each; robber, window cleaner and road crossing 'lollypop-man')
RML.74 - Industrial Workers Figures set No. 5. (Issued in blue overalls, 'RML.75' in incorrect catalogues, 6 figures [Minic Motorways ref: was M1709])
RML.75 - Road Workmen Figures Set No. 6. ('RML.71' in incorrect catalogues, 6 figures)

  Mettoy Minic 'Motorway'
M1709 Mechanics/Pit Stop Crew (RML.74 Industrial Workers issued in white overalls [Model Land ref: was RML.75)

Notes -

A difficult time-line division as the Minic Motorways range appeared in the Tri-ang Hornby Minic catalogues (next entry) of 1968 and 1969 but keeping their Minic Motorway/Tri-ang Model-Land code-numbers rather than the 'R' numbers of the combined model railway companies.

RML 70-75 were issued on individual titled/code-stencilled blister-cards under the Tri-ang Model-Land label and M1709 in a blue and white header-carded bag under the Tri-ang Minic Motorways brand.

Hornby Railways / Hornby Hobbies UK
1973-present, (Dunby/Combex/Marx, from 1973-? [mid-1990's? Management buyout 1979?]), see also; Dollar Tree, Life-Like and Toy Masters.
Traditional Polystyrene Figures and Accessories
R.148 - [Trolleys and platform fittings set] (2nd type, unmarked)
R.413 - Locomotive Crew (2 figures, always unpainted by this time)
R 573/1/924 - Locomotive Super Detail Pack (contents differ slightly between batches)
R 573/1/924/A - Locomotive Super Detail Pack (contents differ slightly between batches)
X1400 - Locomotive Crew (as 573 but only two brake-hoses)
X4700 - King Class Accessory Pack - Figures and Coupling (contents differ from X1400)
Mixed Media Accessory Range
R 551 - Apple Trees, (Issued Spring ‘83)
R 552 - Mini Shade Trees, (Issued Spring ‘83)
R 553 - Green shade trees, (Issued Spring ‘83)
Vinyl-rubber/PVC Figure Sets
Range listed below is bought-in from Hong Kong/China and is from the same range as Life-Like’s sets and had previously been seen as a generic/unbranded carded product.
R 560 - City People (issued 1983, Life-Like stock No; 1182, 6 pedestrians, 1 moped and 1 rider)
R 561 - Sitting People (issued 1983, Life-Like stock No; 1186, 6 figures)
R 562 - Town People (issued 1983, Life-Like stock No; 1189 - Townspeople, 6 adults, 2 children)
R 563 - Working People (issued 1983, Life-Like stock No; 1190 - Railroad Workers, 6 figures, 1 sack barrow, 1 wheel-barrow, 1 crate)
R 564 - Farm People (issued 1984, Life-Like stock No; 1187 - Farmers, 5 standing, 1 seated)
R 565 - Farm Animals and Fencing (issued 1984, Life-Like stock No; 1181 - Barnyard Animals, 1 each; beef cow, dairy cow, sheep, sheepdog, pig, horse, goat + 4 fence sections)
R 767 - Sheep (Life-Like do not appear to have carried the sheep?)
R 768 - Cows (Life-Like stock No; 1183 - Cattle)
Dense/Rigid Polyethylene/Hybrid or Polypropylene Figure Range
R 1147 - Codename Strike Force (2010, reissue of T 1501)
T 1501 - Battle Zone (2000, contains the same modern G.I.’s as the Dollar Tree/Toy Masters mini sets)
X 8920 - Pack of ten rockets for Battle Zone play set

Notes -

The contents of set R.413 were often included in the larger sets and with individual steam locomotive models, particularly when the locomotive had an open cab, with enough room for both figures, some of the smaller models having not enough room due to the practicalities of scale and/or the way the motor was contained within the body of the model. Earlier sets might still have been painted, but late sets were unpainted, and from time to time they seem to have been included with accessories to 'super-detail' the locomotive, such as brake-hoses, tools and such like. Occasionally the accessories were issued without the figures (closed cab/modern diesels?) and the compliment of tools or accessories varied depending upon the nature of the model.

R 573's, X1400 and X4700 are repackaging of the R.413, and variations of the contents exist, also the contents are sometimes still on the spruelets, sometimes picked loose.

A made in Hong Kong carded set exists, containing a mix of part-contents from sets R 560, 563 and 565 above.

The vinyl sets first appeared in the spring of 1983 (four sets/29th edition catalogue), with the other two sets coming a couple of years later (1984/30th edition), the Hong Kong set probably pre-dates these Hornby issues and seem to have been made for/or with the American market in mind, the Farm People in particular being sartorially garbed for that continent's late 1970's agri-fashion!

E is for 'Eavy-metal

As - if not more - collectable as the later 'crystal box' plastic sets by the same company, or the Model Land figures of their rival (and eventual buyer!) are the first figures ever made in particularly small scale (they already had an O gauge range) for railways (although some of the Skybirds figures would suffice) as far as Britain goes; the cast lead figures Hornby first issued in 1938 or 1939.

Two sets, they were solids, although they might have used the hollow-cast principle of a hand held clamp-handled mould they were too small to end up anything other than 'solid', they covered both rail staff and passengers and with the aforementioned Skybirds and a few Cresent and Timpo boxed - vehicle/vessel/aeroplane - sets figures would help fix the size Airfix would later exploit to the full...

A post-war set, like the later plastic set (see post below this one) they would have a pose change...right hand upper shot. Accompanied here by the trolleys and a tractor from the later Dinky Dublo range, which got a die-cast driver. As far as I know there was never any luggage with this vehicle (or mail bags?), but by the time it was issued both Wardie Mastermodels and Britains Lilliput had ranges of suitcases, trunks, pick-nick baskets and the like to load them up with, and both the Dinky Dublo plastics and Merit were round the corner.

The set of passengers which is - again - a post-war set. There used to be clear delineation in the books (Hammond, Ramsay...) between the pre-, and post-war sets vis-a-vis colours, but more varients have turned-up over the 20 years since the books were first published, and as some have been around for over 70 years, there would have been a fair bit of re-painting and chipping to the point where (everything was gloss before the 1960's!) it's not possible to make such a clear list any more, suffice to say; that pre-war are better painted.

There was also the problem of piracy, and here we see in the larger image lower left, a copy on the right and an original with the 'HD' of Hornby Dublo on the left. In the upper of the two small images we can see three pirates by two unknown companies, with a crude rail worker and two very good 'man reading paper's' only given away by the heavy base and the base-colour. The lower of those two images shows variations in original Dinky/Hornby figures as does the upper right-hand picture. I always used to think the guy with the small hat was a miss-mould (lost his brim when the figure dropped from the mould) but in fact there are several differences, including - as you can see - a much higher newspaper position, different mould-line etc...

C is for Crystal

Following the lead/whitemetal sets Hornby produced this fine range of injection-moulded polystyrene accessories. These ran for about five years and are variously known as 'the good ones', 'the crystal box ones', 'the plastic tray ones' etc...I go with Crystal Boxes as they look at their best in their compartments, which at the time were the height of modernist packaging design, they are also unquestioningly the best model railway figures the UK has managed to produce.

The three sets together with the replaced pose top right. It would seem, that there was always an 'empty plinth' in the second set, why they didn't add a second bench or another piece of street/platform furnitures I don't know, but there you go!

This set had - like the metal sets - a pose change somewhere through the run, as the two poses are about the same in rareness, it must have been either mid-way through the run, or that they ran together contemporaneously, mixed in the factory? And why didn't they just put the other policeman in the empty compartment of the passenger set? [See comments]

When I say in the post below "fluid movement and grace" I am waxing a bit lyrical, as they are - like most railway figures - standing around waiting for trains for the most part! But there is a subtlety to that standing and this can best be seen in the passenger set, the figures have their weight on one foot and their hips or waists are sculpted to reflect that.

I don't know who the sculptor was, but similarities between these and the concurrent Tri-ang Model-Land sets would suggest Charles Stadden, although these are a little 'heavier' than most of his output, however that could be down to the size of the masters or some other production process factor. They certainly have some classic Stadden signatures, the angular folds in the clothing being typical.Who knows....no really; does anybody know?

Below the figures are a rather nice pair of sets from the accessory range that came in with a mixed lot and make the similar sets from Merit look as poor as they are! That's unfair really, the later Merit ones are all right but the quality in these is everything that should have made Hornby shine on, not go futt a few years later.

The platform staff figure set is the best of a good bunch, with a mobile magazine stand, refreshment cart (I don't think the 'snack' had been invented then!!) and some of the other paraphernalia of a busy station. You can see a sand coloured suitcase in the boxed set, and I'm sure all three pieces were available in all three colours.